


Masked Affections

by idanato



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Aether Resort, Crack, Everyone is Dead, Gen, Teen for language, fe3h spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:08:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23299069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idanato/pseuds/idanato
Summary: The Flame Emperor was just about to reveal their identity when they were struck down dead instead. They wake up in a strange resort for heroes, but in Fire Emblem there is no heaven, only Hel.
Relationships: Flame Emperor/Death Knight
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Masked Affections

Something was very wrong. The Flame Emperor had been in battle, stoking the flames of war, and now they were standing in a placid and serene resort. A resort? Where in Fodlan was there an actual nice place? Through the little slits in their mask the Flame Emperor’s eyes traced around to see a dining hall, a hot spring, and some sort of stage. This was a _happy_ place? Was that, was that Hubert in the distance, talking with Hilda Goneril? The Flame Emperor had definitely killed Hilda Goneril, semi-accidentally, a month ago. Hubert, the loyal servant that he was, had been at the Flame Emperor’s side just moments ago in battle.

Oh. Oh no. It was all coming back. They had been trying to take off their mask in the Holy Mausoleum when the whip of the Sword of the Creator snapped up and spoiled their reveal. Then darkness, and now…

“Welcome to hell,” came a familiar metallic voice through a horned skull mask. The Death Knight had been brutally massacred by some little twerp of a student months ago. The Flame Emperor had mourned the loss of such a deadly ally…of a friend...of someone they wished had been more. 

“Death Knight?” asked the Flame Emperor. “I, I assumed—”

“You were correct, this is, what comes after,” the Death Knight’s words were slow and ominous. He appeared to have some sort of decapitated teddy bear head fixed to his helm. The contrast of cute and malice was disorienting.

The Flame Emperor was dead. Fuck. The Flame Emperor looked up at the Death Knight towering over them and was suddenly glad for their own restrictive mask. It hid their tears. The Death Knight seemed to understand as his arms outstretched, “Bring it in Flame Emperor.”

“You hug now?” The Flame Emperor only cried harder, this was the _Death Knight_ , not the Cuddle Knight! The Death Knight didn’t hug, he strangled! That’s why the Flame Emperor admired him so much. When someone needing killing, he was their first choice for the job.

Everything they worked so hard to put together, all the sacrifices, the bribes, the assassins, the bloody path they cut, all of it was for nothing! Professor Byleth had ruined everything. There would be no revenge, no recasting of the Fodlan mold and those with crests would still trample on those without. It was too much to take.

“You will get used to this place,” promised the Death Knight. “You will change, a bit, soften perhaps, but do not fear, your blood lust will be sated. There are plenty of battles.”

The Flame Emperor wasn’t quite as into pointless bloodshed as the Death Knight, but they had given him access to a hunting ground and really encouraged his antisocial behavior. They could see why Death Knight thought it was a shared interest between them.

The Flame Emperor looked around at their new reality and saw many warriors hobnobbing with each other seemingly out of space and time. Everyone appeared to be getting along okay though. So this was Valhalla, this was the afterlife. This was their fate. It didn’t seem that bad, and most people here looked relaxed. If Hubert, of all people, could be laughing and blushing with Hilda, well maybe they could get used to this new world. Maybe this was their chance to finally just have a normal life.

A sudden hush fell over the happy resort. People froze in place with fear plastered to their faces. Smaller units were ducking down and hiding. A figure in a hooded white and gold robe was walking through the center of the resort and stopped at a fountain of flowing aether.

“Beware the summoner,” whispered the Death Knight as the hooded figure crossed the plaza. The Death Knight gripped his scythe and the Flame Emperor could hear him rattling in his suit. Someone that the Death Knight feared this much had to be an indomitable foe.

“You,” said the summoner in an unfamiliar accent.

“Me?” asked the Flame Emperor, really hoping this person was talking to someone else. The summoner nodded and then threw a fistful of feathers at the Flame Emperor. They felt a sudden and unexplainable surge of power trace through them. The Flame Emperor was disoriented and confused by the act and the method.

The summoner did it again, “Finally, five stars, okay, time to level up.” There was a dramatic pause, “Shit, I only have enough to get you to level 20. We’re going to have to grind the rest of the way.” The Flame Emperor felt like their skin was burning off and being grown anew within their suit as they were plied with green and yellow crystals.

A strange foreign music began to play in the air - “ _Welcome to the Hotel California—_ ”

The Summoner paused, “Of course my mom’s calling—” They walked off to a corner of the resort and pulled out a strange rectangle they then began talking into. “Oh my god, Mom, I’m not tech support. Have you tried turning it off? Oh, well, the off button is a circle with a line—”

The Flame Emperor looked at the Death Knight, “What is happening?!”

“They will soon take you to the killing fields to battle for their amusement,” whispered the Death Knight. “You will kill and be killed over and over as they collect strange glowing orbs, crystals, and medals. It is never ending, and you are summoned at their whims. You are in favor now because you are new, but, if you displease the summoner they may sacrifice you to strengthen others they deem more worthy.”

Sacrifice? “How do you know this?”

The Death Knight put his hands on the Flame Emperor’s feathered shoulders, “The summoner, they, they killed Mercedes.”

His sister, Mercedes, his poor dead sister. “She’s gone _gone_?” What happened to someone when they permanently died in the afterlife?

The Death Knight tipped his head back and gave a guttural mourning moan, “They said her stats were bad, and she didn’t have enough stars. They called her a pity breaker. I don’t know what that means!” He looked down at the Flame Emperor again, “I also saw them turn someone into a book!”

A book? What the actual fuck? The Flame Emperor had already died once today, they didn’t want to get turned into a manual!

“Is there anywhere to hide?”

The Death Knight nodded and pulled the Flame Emperor into the amphitheater. They ducked down and hid, but soon the stage was lit and the curtains pulled up. Hubert was standing looking extremely uncomfortable with an owl balancing on his head as he held a tome to his chest, “What am I supposed to be doing?”

“Dance you jerk,” ordered the Summoner. Hubert’s legs sprung into a jig that the Flame Emperor knew would never happen in real life. “This will teach you to threaten my avatar!”

“I do not know what I’ve done to offend you.” Hubert was beginning to sweat and looked increasingly alarmed as new tomes were stacked in his hands.

“Your face offends me! Come on rat boy,” laughed the Summoner. Their smile faded after the sixth or seventh weapon change, “You bore me, come my minions, to the dining hall!”

“Poor Hubert,” whispered the Flame Emperor as they watched their loyal friend being drug off and humiliated some more.

“He is lost. Now’s our chance,” said the Death Knight as they sprinted from the theater towards a field.

The Flame Emperor had not cried this much since losing their entire family to dark crest experimentation. The Death Knight held the Flame Emperor close, “Do you believe me now that this is hell?”

“I’m glad we at least have each other,” whispered the Flame Emperor. They stared at each other for a few moments; there was so much unsaid between them in life and now death felt like a second chance. The Flame Emperor got up on tip toes as their masks briefly brushed against each other like a sort of kiss. Maybe this was the silver lining to this fate, despite this scary world around them, at least they had found each other. Maybe now, in this strange and unfamiliar place, they could finally express their love for each other.

A distant cackle drew their attention: the summoner had seen their private embrace, “Heh, I’m going to make you two S-support, that’ll be a funny meme.” They did something on their strange rectangle and began to walk off to torment someone else. 

“What is a meme?” begged the Flame Emperor under their breath.

“I believe it is their god,” muttered the Death Knight.

“We tried to take down a god once. We will do it again, but this time we will succeed,” said the Flame Emperor quietly. A new obsession was brewing in their warmongering heart. They may have fallen in Fodlan, but they would not lose this new battle. The Summoner was going down.

**Author's Note:**

> I got my lil’emperor in Fire Emblem Heroes, and the Death Knight definitely poked them in the butt at the Aether Resort and then played it off like nothing happened. So ergo, this happened


End file.
